I’m a huge fan of DotA…Warcraft III AoS maps are excellent LAN/Battle.net games that should be played by every Warcraft RTS fan at least once. Recently the groupofguys that I play DotA on a periodic basis with decided to try out a new tower defense map. (which I have available for download here)

The map was Age of Myths, created by Clan TDW. The game is very similar to DotA in that there are two opposing sides, the goal is to destroy the other’s base, and each side spawns creeps that follow a specific path and attack anything in their way. Each player chooses a hero that has an allotment of abilities that add to the deadliness of the game and can buy items (Here’s the official list) to augment those abilities. Thats about as similar as it gets.

Here are some good/interesting differences:

AoM is a 12 player game (DotA is 10 player)

The map has an uber-zoom-out…this is awesome

The map has the ability to trigger re-matches where teams switch sides and pick new heroes

Bases are in the top left and bottom right of the map

Rebalance mode. If there is a leaver, the players can request a rebalance which will sort the players into a fairly balanced match-up

The map sports 4 lanes rather than 3

The map sports custom models

There’s some funny custom sounds

There are 16 heroes in the game

Maximum hero level is 20

Spell effects are MUCH more elaborate than DotA

There are categorized items that can only be carried/purchased by specific hero types

Players can purchase builders to repair buildings

Additional troops can be purchased to help push a lane

Like DotA, you accrue money over time and with each kill, however, when you get a hero kill you gain a spirit point. These spirit points (or kill points) can be used to purchase items that cannot be purchased with money.

One of my favorite things is: All abilities for every hero are controled with Q, W, E, R, and T. There is no need to hunt around and memorize a different short-cut key set for each hero

But, with all those cool features, there are some drawbacks:

Its may be a bit unbalanced…for example: the caster classes are the only ones that can buy an item (and its cheap!) that allows them to teleport to anywhere on the map where a friendly structure exists.

The map is a bit big…I’m not sure the size is quite necessary. I may be singing a different tune when I play with more people.

All-in-all it makes for a fun game. If you are a fan of DotA, I’d highly suggest giving this one a shot as it shows real promise. Its a blast to play and has some sweet features. I guarantee you that my friends and I will be playing AoM a lot more! Oh and if you’re curious, here’s a list of heroes available:

Light Side

Bjorn Ironside – Dwarven Berserker

Sasaki Kojiro – Chujo Ryu Swordsman

Cosmos – Astral Mage

Gigas – Titan

Roland – Paladin

Monsopiad – Headhunter

Storm – Weather Seer

Triton – Water Archon

Dark Side

Arachna – Lycosa Tarentula

Ghelgath – Frost Fiend

Sludge – Virus

Admiral Galbator – Phantasmal Pirate

Magnus – Minotaur

Scox – Skeletal Marksman

Nergal – Dark Druid

Narglauth – Fire Caller

That’s a brief list of the heroes as the stand now, I’ll be featuring each one in its own blog post soon to discuss their skills, give screenshots, etc.